Georgia Wins Penultimate Battle In Tri-State Water Wars
It took years. Luckily, it didn’t cost thousands of lives.
Georgia has emerged victorious in a ruling by the US Supreme Court’s Special Master in the decade-plus long water wars over the water flowing from Lake Lanier to Florida. Greg Bluestein of the AJC has those details:
A special master appointed by the U.S. Supreme Court decided said Florida failed to prove that new limits on Georgia’s water consumption were needed after five weeks of hearing testimony in the case.
“Florida has failed to show that a consumption cap will afford adequate relief,” wrote Ralph Lancaster Jr., the special master appointed to the case.
The U.S. Supreme Court must still accept Lancaster’s findings. There is also a remote possibility that Congress could weigh in, but that becomes a sticky matter for a lot of Western states that don’t care much for the potential of a new precedent.
Kudos go out to Governor Nathan Deal and his staff, former Governor Perdue and his staff, Attorney General Chris Carr and staff, and former Attorney General Sam Olens and staff. Quite a few attorneys worked on Georgia’s behalf, including Brad Carver, Nels Peterson, Jud Turner, Josh Belinfante, Harold Rehies, Carol Couch, Bruce Brown, and Todd Sillman among others.
There’s also the Georgia congressional delegation, many of whom stood united and took a budget vote they didn’t want to take in order to get a measure favorable to Alabama and Florida stripped from an omnibus bill. It was a team effort. And it looks like the Georgia team gets to keep our water. Onward and upward….to Tennessee.
About Author
Charlie
Founder of GeorgiaPol.com; Now weekly columnist Very interested in Georgia and Georginas. Interest in politics is waning daily.
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WASHINGTON – Rep. John Lewis made this statement when he heard that the Special Master appointed by the U.S. Supreme Court to adjudicate Georgia’s water dispute with Florida ruled in Georgia’s favor.
“I was pleased to hear that this long-standing dispute between our state and Florida, as well as Alabama, may be moving to a sound conclusion. As the dean of the Georgia delegation, I can say that the water crisis represents one instance where members have worked in a bipartisan fashion throughout the delegation and across party lines to help resolve the conflicts in this matter.
“Our members have always held that this was an issue best decided by the individual states involved. Once Congress gets involved our action would have national implications that could destabilize long-standing agreements between other states affecting their use of a vital resource, water.
“Today’s decision is a major step. Once the courts have settled the matter, the issues affecting people’s lives and livehoods remain. There will be a continuing mandate for the governors of the three states to work together to respond to the needs of the region. I hope lines of communication between the three states will remain open, once this matter is finally settled, and discussion will continue for the good of the people of the Southeast and this nation.”
Still couldn’t hurt to stockpile some water, jic.
You are right, but where will that stockpiled water come from and where would it be stored? There was no need to complicate the ongoing litigation with Alabama and Florida by stockpiling (that’s what lakes do) water in other river basins. Now that we have this win, the option of possibly expanding or building new reservoirs is a viable topic.
did atlanta convert that old quarry into a reservoir yet?
I don’t believe so.
I think they are working on it. I drive by there every day and there are a lot of dump trucks going in and out of there.
https://roadtrippers.com/us/atlanta-ga/nature/westside-reservoir-park
Actually, now that I look at a map I’m not sure those trucks are related to the quarry. There is a paving company right there too that they might be affiliated with.
Work has started. Not sure if the tunneling has started but we do have the machine. http://www.clatl.com/news/article/13087782/atlantas-tunnelboring-machine-has-arrived-and-it-needs-a-name-that-will-last-throughout-the-ages
Lurking is the implication by the Special Master that FL should’ve included Corps in its lawsuit.
Yep. That mention of the Corps is an invitation to further litigation.
“building new reservoirs is a viable topic.”
Some Georgians of the non-Atlanta persuasion have already finished their discussing and moved on to building. Oconee and Walton County have built a shared reservoir that is filling now. It was financed by extremely cheap state money. There’s another reservoir being built a few miles north of Gainesville that I believe taps the same money supply.
That’s correct and a good thing. But we all know that Florida and Alabama don’t really care about water. They don’t care about Oconee and Walton counties. They care about Georgia, specifically Atlanta, being a large economic engine that they see as harming their own economic interests.
This has almost zero to do with water. Another example of this not being about water is Cobb county and the water they return to the Chattahoochee cleaner than when they took it out. If this was truly about water Florida and Alabama would be willing to count the water that is put back into the river by Cobb county as part of the down river flow, but it isn’t counted. Becasue they don’t care about water. They care about harming Atlanta and the metro region.
So after this ruling I just want to say suck it. Especially to Marco. And I voted for him for President.
“Florida and Alabama don’t really care about water. . . .They care about harming Atlanta and the metro region.”
Where did that come from? The states aren’t engaged in some high-powered version of Risk where you focus on destroying your enemies. This is real world stuff. Florida and Alabama absolutely care about water. So do Georgians, a lot them living downstream from Atlanta.
Georgia got a win from the special master but it’s not carte blanche to metro Atlanta to commit water for all the tract homes and office parks they can build. Georgia has an obligation to their long-term economic growth, to the environmental health of the state, and to other Georgians to provide sufficient flow for drinking purposes, industrial usage, agriculture and irrigation, and recreation.
Sorry about that vote for Rubio. At least he wasn’t the worst choice.